


the hours that we turn into days

by nadin



Category: Snowpiercer (TV 2020)
Genre: F/M, Fluff, Hurt/Comfort, Romance, nothing ever goes according to plan on Snowpiercer
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-30
Updated: 2020-08-30
Packaged: 2021-03-07 01:35:02
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,877
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26188819
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/nadin/pseuds/nadin
Summary: Five years in, and Melanie had mastered the art of holding on to the good moments when they came her way to bottle up the impact of them so they could carry her through the times when it felt like everything was falling apart.Five years was how long it took her to stop taking those moments for granted.All Melanie Cavill wanted was to have a nice date night with Bennett Knox, but on Snowpiercer, nothing ever goes according to plan.
Relationships: Melanie Cavill/Bennett Knox
Comments: 8
Kudos: 25





	the hours that we turn into days

**Author's Note:**

> Okay folks, I've got a couple of requests for Bennett's POV and I'm working on it -- well, I'm working on figuring out what I want to work on, but well, I'll get there. In the meantime, some good old Mel's POV. Hope you'll like this piece :)

If there was something that the Freeze taught her, it was to not be complacent. It was that there was no room for mercy left in the world, and might never be again.

Five years in, and Melanie had mastered the art of holding on to the good moments when they came her way to bottle up the impact of them so they could carry her through the times when it felt like everything was falling apart.

Five years was how long it took her to stop taking those moments for granted.

She swung by Bennett’s quarters one night after her shift for no reason other than that there was no crisis to take care of or drama to defuse or a proverbial fire to put out. That, and she had not seen him most of the day, had barely said two words to him since morning, and she wanted to.

He answered on the first knock, a “Yeah?” that had Melanie pressing her palm to a chip pad that would let her in, the door sliding open with a barely audible hiss.

He was sitting at his desk, an open notebook and row upon row of neat handwriting and formulas before him. His gaze swept over her face, a kaleidoscope of emotions chasing across his features. Surprise and excitement that had her heart clench and then unfurl in her chest, followed by concern that something bad had happened. She watched it smooth out once he had taken note of her casual clothes and takeaway boxes in her hand—she had stopped by the first-class kitchen, picking up dinner and plucking a tub of ice-cream from the freezer for good measure. Watched his shoulders relax and his lips curl into a small half-smile.

It made her relax too, the relief of finally shaking off the pretences, the feeling that she had spent the past ten hours wearing someone else’s skin. 

“Hey,” she breathed, her hand curling over the door jamb.

“Hey,” he echoed, his gaze lingering pointedly on the food. “Is that for me?”

Melanie laughed. “Maybe,” she conceded as she stepped into his room and the door slid closed behind her with a soft  _ whoosh. _ “What are you doing?”

He offered her a small shrug. “Just checking some calculations for the power banks. Stuff that we talked about.”

She stepped towards his desk. “Show me.”

He slapped the notebook closed and pushed it away, shaking his head, a glint of humour dancing in his eyes.

“No. You’re off the clock.”

“Ben,” she protested.

He was still shaking his head as he took the food from her, placing it on his desk as well. His fingers curled over her wrist. Melanie didn’t resist when he tugged at it, pulling her down until she was straddling his lap, his old office chair creaking beneath them and making her wonder, briefly and absently, if it was going to give in.

“No,” Bennett repeated emphatically as his palms slid up her thighs and around her waist, pulling her closer still.

She rolled her eyes a little, helpless against it, but her hands were moving up his chest, around his neck, her own smile threatening to split her face in half. God help her, it was good to be here.

“Hi,” he murmured, and his gaze swept over her face once more. Melanie’s heart knocked against the inside of her chest as it dropped to her mouth.

She leaned forward. “Hi,” she whispered the moment before their lips met.

He kissed her, hungrily and desperately, his mouth moving with purpose over hers and making the tension of the day seep right out of her bones. Her lips parted beneath his, deepening the kiss. Bennett made a sound on the back of his throat, sending a surge of heat right through her. Her palms cupped over his cheeks, tilting his face up as his hands tangled in her hair, moving over her shoulders, up her back again.

Melanie drew away from him just long enough for his fingers to dip beneath the hem of her hoodie, lifting it up and over her head and tossing it to the floor. When her eyes found his, his gaze was glazed over and unfocused. Her breath hitched, catching in her throat. She wanted him, badly. Wanted his hands on her body and her name whispered into her skin and the burning need coursing in her veins instead of blood.

She lifted her hand to his face, her fingers skittering over his cheek. He brushed her hair from her cheek, and she watched him swallow, hard, drunk on knowing that she had that effect on him. 

He kissed her again, slowly, drawing all air out of her lungs and leaving her aching for more—more of everything. She broke their kiss with a gasp when his hand slipped under her t-shirt, tracing the bare skin at the base of her spine, her eyes fluttering closed when he transferred his attention immediately to her throat.

“I’m glad you came,” he murmured, his teeth grazing along her throat.

Melanie made a strangled sound when he sucked hard on her skin, certain she heard him chuckle a little at that.

She didn’t care, she just wanted to—wanted to—

When the phone on his desk rang, neither of them paid attention at first.

It took Melanie a moment to register it, and one more—to place it.

“The phone,” she breathed.

He ignored it, and her words as he pressed a hot, open-mouthed kiss to her pulse-point, making her forget about it, too. And everything else, for that matter, as her hands dropped to the buckle of his belt, fumbling a little as she tried to undo it. But the ringing continued, a persistent shrill of it pulling her out of the haze of pleasure.

“Ben…”

As his hand moved lightly over her thighs, he caught her lobe between his teeth. “Mhm?”

Melanie’s breath stuttered out of her chest. Something could be wrong. Maybe they had tried reaching her in her room, but she was not there. Obviously. She was here, and something could be—something could be—Goddammit.

“The phone—”

His fingers curled over her hips, tugging her towards him. She had probably never hated the layers of clothes between them more than she did right now. “No,” he murmured, kissing a sensitive spot behind her ear. 

“It can be something important.”

He let out a small laugh, the sound of it sending a jolt of desire down her spine.

“This is important,” he pointed out.

By then, the ringing had stopped, but just as she allowed herself to mentally map out everything they were going to do next, and take their sweet time with it, too, it started again, seemingly more demanding than before.

She pushed her hand into his hair and tugged at it a little, pulling his mouth away from her.

He blinked at her, his lips swollen and his gaze unfocused—and she was going to kill whoever was on the other end, but they could not ignore them.

Melanie lifted a pointed brow at him and he groaned, dropped his forehead on her shoulder theatrically. She could have sworn he had cursed under his breath, too, bringing a smile to her lips and making her heart twist in her chest, in a way that decidedly was not unpleasant.

She scratched her nails through the hair near the nape of his neck as he reached for the receiver, his other hand anchored on the base of her spine to hold her close.

“This is—” he started and cleared his throat. “This is Bennett.”

She combed her fingers through his hair once more, her hand stilling on the back of his neck when she saw his face grow serious, his brows knitting together.

“No, wait, hold on, Javi. Slow down.” He looked up at her, and Melanie’s stomach dropped when their eyes met. “Yeah, I got it…” He paused, listening. Her heart slammed loudly against her breast-bone once, then twice. “Yeah, she’s here. Hold on a second.”

With that, Bennett handed her the receiver.

“It’s Javi.”

Melanie took it, only then noticing how badly her hands were shaking.

It was not an emergency, she knew that much, otherwise an alarm would be blaring. The thought brought her some relief. But it didn’t mean that it was not bad.

“Javi? What’s going on?”

_ “Burst pipe,” _ Javi responded immediately, filling her in with the conciseness that Melanie appreciated.  _ “It’s under Ag-Sec, we had to shut down the water supply in that section. The team is already there, but it’s the position of the pipe that makes it complicated.” _

Melanie closed her eyes, rubbing the bridge of her nose as she listened, feeling the tension build up in the back of her skull. She could feel Bennett’s eyes on her, feel the warmth of him, and it calmed her.

_ “There’s something else,” _ Javi’s voice drew her out of her thoughts.

She opened her eyes, locking her gaze with Ben’s.

_ “There’s a storm coming in. We need to finish the repairs before…” _

_ Before it got worse, _ she finished for him. Before the bad weather hit, causing even more damage.

“Thank you, Javi,” she heard herself say. “I’m on my way.”

She handed the phone back to Bennett, willing her mind to settle. They’d had it worse than a burst pipe. But she didn’t want to think of how much worse it could get if they didn’t get it fixed quickly.

“I have to…” she started, absently, as she slid off Bennett’s lap.

“Yeah.”

He rose to his feet. Melanie watched him push his hand through his hair, her exact concerns that she felt churning in her stomach chasing across his features.

“You don’t have to come,” she said, shaking her head, as she scooped up her hoodie from the floor, pulling it on over her head. But by the time her head appeared from the collar, he had already buckled his belt and was waiting for her at her door, his hand poised over the chip pad.

“Maybe it’ll go faster with both of us there,” he said with a crooked smile, and Melanie didn’t argue.

However, when she moved to walk past him, his arm darted out, sliding around her waist as he pulled her close against him. He dipped his head, brushing a quick kiss to her lips.

“To be continued,” he murmured after he drew back.

She nodded, feeling a faint making of a smile working its way to her face.

“To be continued.”

* * *

Of course, it was never just a burst pipe. It was never only one thing on Snowpiercer. All those years in, and she should have gotten used to it, Melanie thought.

When they arrived at the affected car, it was mayhem. The damaged pipe was sticking from the wall, pulled from under the insulation for repairs, its jagged edges gleaming like sharp teeth in halogen light. Puddles of water were glistening on the metal floor where the pumps didn’t reach them.

It was not the pipe that Melanie was concerned about though but the water damage caused before they had cut off the supply. Water that had frozen when it had gotten close to the hull, to the cold, cables and wiring and god knew how many other things that they would not discover until it was too late, she feared.

“What’s the status?” Melanie asked as she walked over to one of the engineers working on repairs.

“I’ll start the diagnostics,” Bennett murmured, his hand brushing ever so lightly over hers as he moved past her, and she nodded.

She listened as the other man filled her in, her gaze moving about. Once or twice it landed on Bennett who was quickly typing commands on a laptop one of the other engineers had brought with them. Each time, as if sensing her attention, he would look up, their gazes locking for a split second.

“We’ve cut the supply,” the man standing before her explained, repeating Javi’s words. “But this is Ag-Sec, they need it to maintain the required level of humidity.”

Yes, Melanie knew that. She had never known how fragile nature could be until she was tasked with trying to keep it alive. How easily it could be destroyed. It was as though the Freeze had made it a thousand times harder for everything to survive, even in seemingly perfect conditions.

They had lost quite a few types of plants to minor mistakes in care over the years. And as far as Melanie was concerned, there wasn’t much left that they could  _ afford _ to lose.

“Mel.”

She looked up, turning towards Bennett.

“We need to remove the entire section of the pipe, replace it.”

“I’ll go,” one of the guys offered, gesturing towards the grated chute, leading into the belly of the train.

But Melanie was shaking her head. “No, I’ll do it.”

She was smaller, and she knew the train like the back of her hand. And they had no room for a mistake, not when their survival was concerned.

There was a silent question in Bennett’s eyes, a suggestion to deal with it instead of her on the tip of her tongue—she knew him well enough to hear it even without him opening his mouth. But after a moment, he merely nodded, his eyes darting towards the toolbox.

They worked in companionable silence for a while, interrupted only by the hum on the train and the creak of metal against metal as the train rushed forward along the track and the brief exchanges between the men in the main subtrain area.

By the time Melanie crawled out of the chute, she was covered in grime and her hands ached from the effort of using the wrench. But one section of the pipe was replaced, and there was a satisfaction to it.

“How is it looking?” she asked, stepping towards Bennett who was trying to wrestle off the part that was still sticking from under the insulation while the other two men were checking bogie motors for water damage.

He jerked his chin towards the laptop.

“I think it’s holding steady, I just need to…”

He trailed off, scrunching his face as he rummaged through the toolbox.

Melanie stood up to have a look, brushing her hand over his shoulder as she did so.

She felt it the nano-second before the train shuddered violently and the alarm siren kicked in—a tremor that was not right.

The storm, she remembered as her stomach dropped.

“Brace!” she snapped, dropping against a wall as a wail pierced the air and the train jerked abruptly.

But not soon enough. Not soon—

As though in slow motion, she watched Bennett get tossed against a wall, his skull slamming into it with a sickening sound that made something inside of her snap in half as he skidded a little further down the car on the wet floor.

“Ben!” she called out, lurching forward when he stayed still for a moment, and then another one.

She crawled over to him, ignoring the wide-eyed looks of the two men who sat on the floor with their backs pressed against the wall.

“Ben,” she repeated, her hands moving over his face as the train continued to shudder, the alarm blaring so loudly she couldn’t think straight.

After a second, he moaned, and she thought she had never been more relieved in her life. Her hand brushed his hair back from his face as his eyes fluttered open slowly.

“Mel?” he breathed.

“Easy,” she murmured as she helped him sit up, slowly. “You’re bleeding.”

He glanced down at his arm and the rip in his jumpsuit and bright-red blood soaking its sleeve faster than Melanie liked.

“The pipe,” he muttered. Instinctively, she looked towards it, the torn metal and the red that had to be his blood. “Must’ve nicked me.” He lifted his good arm, reaching behind his head.

“What is it?” she demanded when he hissed in pain.

“Nothing, just—”

He paused when the siren cut off just as suddenly as it turned on, the absence of it somehow more deafening.

Melanie’s eyes found one of the other engineers. “Finish up here,” she said, and the man nodded. “If you need me, call the Engine. Come on,” she added, this time to Bennett, helping him up. “We need to stop the bleeding.”

* * *

“Did no one teach you not to play with sharp objects?” Pelton asked, shaking her head, sounding equally impressed and disapproving – something that Melanie was happy not to be on the receiving end of.

Bennett was sitting on the cot in the infirmary, stripped down to his waist because there was no other way to deal with the cut running across his bicep while Pelton, summoned there in the middle of the night, worked on stitching him up.

“Engineer stuff, you know how it is,” Bennett explained, offering her a small shrug—something that earned him a glare and a stern  _ Don’t move. _

From the spot at the door, Melanie could tell that he was in pain, and yet also trying very hard not to smile at Pelton’s slippers and pyjama pants with teddy-bears.

“Actually, I don’t,” Pelton pointed out. “Because it’s always one of you I have to patch up, not the other way around.”

He had a mild concussion, she had informed them earlier, but the cut was clean, and despite the amount of blood, it wasn’t too deep. Lucky, that was what Pelton had told them, and on that, Melanie agreed with her.

It was only now that the adrenaline rush was finally ebbing, her hands no longer shaking the way they had when she had had to help Bennett on the cot half an hour earlier. The relief of it all was almost too much to bear.

“No more heavy lifting,” Pelton announced as she affixed a gauze over the wound. Melanie tried not to look at it too closely. “Not until I remove the stitches.”

Bennett met her eyes over Pelton’s shoulder, and Pelton turned to give Melanie a pointed look.

“I mean it,” she pressed.

“Yes, ma’am,” Bennett muttered, and cleared his throat to cover his chuckle as Melanie folded her arms over her chest and pressed her lips around a smile.

Pelton sighed, shaking her head with exasperation. She smoothed her hands over the gauze once more to make sure it was firmly affixed in place.

“Come over tomorrow,” she said to Bennett. “I want to see that there’s no infection.” She handed him a glass of water and a painkiller, and he swallowed it obediently. “Now, get out of here.”

* * *

By the time they made it back to his quarters—after they had stopped at the affected car to see how the repairs were going; after Melanie had talked to Javi to confirm that the rough patch of the track hadn’t caused any significant damage elsewhere; after she’d made a train-wide announcement that everything was clear and everyone was safe—it was past 2 in the morning.

Bennett pressed his palm to the chip pad, the door sliding open before them.

“Well,” he chuckled, “I suppose this was not how this night was supposed to go.”

His shirt was ruined but Pelton had offered him one of the generic ones she kept for the workers, and its sleeve was now bulging where it was covering the bandage. Melanie’s stomach twisted when her gaze shifted to it, unbidden. She could still see the blood on the jumpsuit, could still hear the thoughts rushing through her head—the panic and helplessness at thinking that she could do nothing. That his wound could be worse than they’d thought. That the hit he had taken to his head was—

She pushed the memory aside, forcing herself to take a breath. The room that had started to sway around her a little moments ago stilled again.

“No, it was not,” Melanie breathed out. But, on Snowpiercer...

He smiled at her, that tired smile that never failed to make something unspool in her chest.

His good arm snaked around her waist as he drew her towards him, dipping his head to tuck his face into the curve of her neck. She hesitated for a moment before her arms came to wrap carefully around him, mindful of not hurting him. It didn’t escape her that he had barely moved his injured arm even since they walked out of the infirmary, trying not to jostle it more than he had to, and she had to hold back the urge to trace her hand over the bandage, desperate to make sure for herself that he was alright.

“So, where were we?” he whispered into her skin, and she couldn’t help smiling at that.

She turned her face, lips grazing over his temple. “You heard Pelton—no more heavy lifting. She  _ meant _ it.”

He drew back just far enough away to meet her gaze, his brow quirked up. “You think she meant—”

_ The sex. _ He didn’t need to say that.

Melanie laughed. “Yeah.”

Bennett sighed and made a face. “Killjoy.”

“You should rest,” she added, giving him a light push and he took a step back, and then another one—without letting go of her—until his calves hit the mattress of his bunk.

He lowered down to sit on it, his arm sliding down to wrap around Melanie’s thighs as her hands landed on his shoulders.

“Stay,” he asked, looking up at her. Melanie lifted a quizzical eyebrow at him, and his lips twitched, curving into a smile. “Someone needs to wake me up every four hours to make sure I’m not dead. Concussion and all that.”

She couldn’t help rolling her eyes at that. She also didn’t have it in her to point out that she needed to be up in less than four hours to put on her teal uniform and play the same game that had been keeping them going for the past five years.

“I’m fine, Mel,” he said after a moment, and she wondered how much he had seen on her face, in her eyes before she knew to hide it. “I’ve had it worse. That tequila hangover from two years ago was way,  _ way _ worse.”

She scoffed. “That’s not funny, Ben.”

His smile widened, and she didn’t resist the impulse to lift her hand and thread it through his hair. “It’s kinda funny.”

“If I sleep here, I’m going to need to use your shower,” she said. 

He nodded towards the bathroom door. “All yours.” And then he stood up again, moving towards his closet. “Let me find something for you to wear to bed.”

“Thanks,” Melanie nodded, choosing not to mention the obvious—that it would probably take it all of twenty seconds to fetch her own stuff.

She heard him chuckle a little under his breath and looked up to find him standing at his desk.

“Figures,” Bennett muttered, incredulous.

“What is it?”

He glanced towards her, and then pointed at the tub of ice-cream she had brought earlier, completely melted now.

“We live in a world determined to freeze everything in seconds, and  _ this _ still happens.” 

**Author's Note:**

> One of the things I really like about this show is that we have 7 years' worth of missing scenes to work with :) 
> 
> Hope you like this one! Please feel free to come talk to me, and maybe share your speculations about season 2? I'm really hoping we'll get that extended trailer soon enough!


End file.
